Eight Meeting with My Conversation Partner

During this meeting with Jose I was squirming in my seat ready to leave for Thanksgiving. Because I couldn’t get Thanksgiving Break off of my mind, I decided to ask Jose how he was going to spend his Thanksgiving. It’s always interesting to hear how those that are not native to the United States interpret this tradition. Jose kind of shrugged his shoulders and said he probably wouldn’t do anything. This made me wonder how other cultures that do not have our same interpretation of Thanksgiving view it. I asked Jose how he felt about Thanksgiving, and I expected to hear that it was a discriminatory holiday that commemorated the European domination over Native Americans, simply because that’s a common criticism of Thanksgiving heard in the United States. However, Jose simply replied that he liked the tradition because it brought families together to spend time with each other and celebrate. I was so glad to hear that’s what the tradition projected to other cultures, because that’s exactly how I view Thanksgiving. I understand that the original tradition may have been rooted in racism, but today I think it has simply evolved into a way for families to get together and catch up.

Jose compared it to the Day of the Virgin in his country where people get together, and walk 5 miles to church in a procession of singing people. It is a day to give thanks to the Virgin, but also to gather with friends and family. Despite that fact that Thanksgiving is a secular holiday and the Day of the Virgin is clearly a religious one, Jose saw only the similarity of gathering with family and friends. I’m glad to hear this.

Jose and I also talked about the differences between the environmental values of the US and those of Venezuela.  Jose told me that there are no hunting laws to protect the size of animal populations. Even deer are a scarce population in Venezuela. Jose also told me that the cities, houses, stores, and everything like that are crammed close together, so there seems to be little environmental conservation. This was a wake up that made me realize that the green madness we hear about all the time isn’t necessarily a global movement.

Meeting with Jose for these past eight weeks has been a great experience, and I’m glad had this opportunity. Since being at TCU, I feel like I have really learned how to view and be open to others’ worldviews. This was a great hands-on experience that helped me practice this skill. I definitely recommend continuing this program. 

"Cross-Country Snow" by Ernest Hemingway: Freedom vs. Responsibility

The dichotomy between the skiing out of doors and the indoor atmosphere of the bar is a metaphor for the dichotomy of Nick’s freedom vs. his responsibilities in life.

            The description of Nick’s skiing experience is rapid and full of movement and purely physical. He jumps straight from the car and moves straight into skiing up and down a constantly “undulating” slope. The passage says that moving down the “mountainside plucked Nick’s mind out and left him only the wonderful flying, dropping sensation in his body.” This sentence implies that to enjoy himself Nick must to leave his thoughts behind and there must therefor be something weighing on his mind. Nick is also more daring in this state of freedom. He takes on pace that he knows is too fast, and when he wipes out he gets right back up and keeps skiing. When Nick is free from the responsibilities on his mind he is able to excel, and even take the lead by passing up his friend George and doing a ski technique that his friend cannot attempt. Aside from the narrative moving quickly, so does the syntax while Nick skis. Hemingway uses short, choppy clauses and sentences while Nick is in motion. Nick is also the sole focus of the writing while he skis down the slope.

            When the narrative setting switches to inside of the bar, the descriptions focus more on the other people in the room, and therefore the pressures of the outside world. The atmosphere of the room seems full and dark, almost as if the pressures of the world are pressing in on Nick, as opposed to the free, open feeling he experiences outside. The waitress that serves Nick and George is the embodiment of those responsibilities that Nick has been able to ignore up until this point in the story. Nick does not notice that she is pregnant at first, much like he did not notice his responsibilities until he was in the inn. She is also unpleasant to George, much like the realization that Nick is to become a father is an unpleasant realization for the two men. Nick and George fear that “maybe [they’ll] never go skiing again”, or in other words experience that freedom again, because of Nick’s new responsibility to his future wife and child. Nick is also uncertain that he and Helen will ever “go skiing together in the States.” He understands that life is about to change for him.

            Nick, however, reverts back to sense of denial at the closing of this story. Even though Nick comes to this realization that his life is about to change he goes back for one last ski, and seems glad that he and George “now… would have the run home together”, or one last exercise of freedom.

Seventh Meeting with my Conversation Partner

When I came to meet with Jose today he was sitting with one of his friends from the EIP Program. They were speaking in Spanish and when I came over she immediately stopped. Jose introduced her to me, but she was hesitant to say anything. It became apparent that she was afraid to speak English with me. Jose urged her, but she acted bashful and still refused.

When Jose and I went to sit down for our meeting, I asked him why he thought she was afraid to speak to me. He she was a perfectionist and was unwilling to make mistakes. He went on to say that in learning a language you have to be willing to embarrass yourself and make mistakes or else you won’t learn. He added that people were typically nice when you made a mistake anyhow.

I completely sympathize with Jose’s friend, but I also agree completely with Jose. I took Spanish in high school, and ,much like Jose’s friend, I was terrified to speak. Because of my unwillingness to try and mess up I now cannot speak a word of Spanish after 4 years of instruction. When I began Italian in college, I vowed to have a different experience and challenge myself to practice speaking in front of others. This has been hard for me. I try, but often revert to English when others in my class are unwilling to try. But Jose is right, I’ll never learn that way. Hearing Jose’s point of view reminded me that mistakes are only evidence that you are trying. Sometimes we fall flat on our face, but that’s OK as long as we get back up and keep trying.

Jose and I then got into a discussion about how he is trying to change his visa. I know very little about immigrant visas, so I was surprised to find out that there were so many specific ones. Jose is currently on a student visa, which requires him to remain in some sort of schooling. He is, however, now trying to switch it to a sporting visa, which will require that he participate in his horse-riding event if he wants to remain in America. This system is much more structured than I realized. If you are to stay in America, the American government wants to be able to make sure you have a purpose for being here. To me, this system seems so limiting. You can’t make life decisions or decide what you are going to do next without first going through the government. And it’s not just that the government wants to know what you’re doing, they have to approve it. I think that’s such a limiting system, and there must be a better way to allow immigrants the same freedoms as all other citizens, maybe an annual check up to make sure they’re being productive, or something of that nature.

            Jose and I also talked about how each country has their own names for the other countries. For example, in the United States we call it Italy, not Italia as Italians would. I have always thought this was a weird concept. Why shouldn’t each country be able to name itself? I think giving other countries your own name is a way asserting your dominance or power over them, and I just find it interesting that every country does this.

Knowing Our Biases: Sixth Meeting with my Conversation Partner

Jose and I often meet for the hour before I go to religion class. Today Jose asked me about what we learned in the class. I said that the main focus of the class is to learn about different religions and find ways in which they all connect. The definition of religion in this class encompasses not only traditional religion, but also what “ultimately concerns” people in general. This can encompass nationalism and the pursuit of happiness. After I explained this, I got a glimpse into Jose’s worldview and his ultimate concern. He began to tell me that he thought religion had too many rules to comply well with this day and age. He did not think that certain religions should enforce such a strict law codes because it sets people up for failure.

Since being in my world religions class, I’ve realized that you can tell a lot about what is of ultimate concern to person based on what they are willing to sacrifice and what they are not. When Jose said that religion should bend towards the will of today’s society that showed that there was a shift in Venezuelan culture away from traditional religious values.

I, at first, assumed it was a shift towards humanism, or the idea that the pursuit of happiness is the ultimate concern. I then realized that I was projecting American societal values on Venezuelan culture. In America, religion is typically pushed away for this pursuit of happiness, so I assumed religious values were adapted for similar reasons in Venezuela. But Jose never said what societal value religion should adapt to, simply that it should adapt.

It was amazing how naturally I projected my culture’s worldview onto Jose’s. I then realized that it’s almost impossible not to. The only way someone can measure what others say is based on the life experiences that form his or her worldview. There’s no way to avoid it, we just have to be aware of our biases and know how they affect what we hear others say. 

"The Chrysanthemums": Impending War and Gender Roles

 Steinbeck wrote “The Chrysanthemums” as America exited the Great Depression, but also moved towards the Second World War. Americans had a general hope for a better future, and a sort of denial about the war they knew was eminent. The duality of these warring emotions presents itself in different thematic concepts throughout Steinbeck’s story.

The description of the Valley in the beginning of this story sets this tone of duality. Steinbeck states, “the stubble fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley”. In this description the happiness and optimism represented in sunshine is in sight, but unattainable. Steinbeck also writes, “the farmers were mildly hopeful of a good rain before long; but fog and rain do not go together.” This shows that the people are hopeful for the end of suffering, but have an awareness that this is not. Steinbeck’s message of impending war is further enhanced with the symbolism of the rain and fog. The rain, or new life, is stamped out by fog, whose imagery closely mirrors the smoke of war.

Steinbeck includes a couple of symbols that also contribute to this idea of duality. The Chrysanthemum is a celebratory flower in the US but is a common funerary flower in other countries. Steinbeck also includes a lot of imagery with the color yellow. Yellow usually represents happiness and optimism, but the Japanese used the yellow Chrysanthemum as a symbol for bravery in war. So both symbols have a surface meaning of happiness, but also a dark connotation. This mirrors the American surface hope for prosperity, but the hidden awareness of impending darkness.

The awareness of this impending darkness becomes particularly apparent in the ending passage where Elisa questions Henry about the fights. Even though Elisa is a woman and vulgar things such as fights are supposedly hidden from her, she has a thorough knowledge of what goes on at the fights. This mirrors how even though the reality of impending war is supposedly unapparent, everyone secretly knows. Society’s denial is of this widely known “secret” is then embodied when Elisa says she doesn’t want to go the fights and continues to ignore their reality.

The Great Depression also caused conflict in the gender roles of Steinbeck’s time. The Great Depression forced men to be out of the house to look for work and this more closely chained women to their traditional roles at home. Women also felt an increased pressure to go out and provide for their families but they couldn’t because of these traditional expectations. This caused a big conflict in the expectations of women. Steinbeck presents this conflict in Elisa’s character. There are many parts of this story where Elisa is portrayed as a strong and capable person but she is never allowed to fulfill that capacity for power. For example, Elisa has this strong and powerful capability to cultivate life through the Chrysanthemums. Steinbeck describes her as a manly and “over-powerful” as she gardens. When she tries to give this gift to the traveling repairman he stifles her ability by throwing the Chrysanthemums to the ground. When Elisa sees this, she is reduced to “crying weakly—like and old woman.” Elisa is the perfect example of a woman with power being reduced into the weak traditional roles of women.